Improvement in welding and repairing railroad-bars



1. c. PARKS.

Welding and Repairing Railroad Bars.

No. 37,972. Patented Mar. 24, 1863.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN C. PARK, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK-.

IMPROVEMENT IN WELDING AND REPAIRING RAILROAD-BARS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 37,972, dated March 24,1863.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN C. PARK, of Buffalo, in the county of Erie andState of New York, have invented a new and Improved Machine for WeldingTogether and Repairing Railway-Bars; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecification, in which- Figure 1 is a top view of the machine. Fig. 2is a longitudinal vertical section of the same. Fig. 3 is a front endview of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severalfigures.

This machine is composed of a ram and a' die, having their faces of theform of the two sides of a railway bar, the die secured firmly to afixed block or bed'plate, and the ram being fitted to guides on the saidblock or plate and attached to a piston working within a steam-cylindersecured to the said block or plate, the object being the directapplication of steam-power to the welding and repairing 0f railway-bars.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I willproceed to describe its construction and operation.

A is the block or bed-plate, to which all the parts of the machine areattached, made of cast-iron of snfficient weight to give it greatsolidity.

B is the die, having its face of the form of one side of a railway-bar,l), and bolted firmly on the top of the block A.

O is the rain, having its face of the form of one side of the bar D.This ram is fitted to slide toward and from the die B in horizontalguides 01 d, bolted to the block A, and it is keyed securely to one endof the rod E of the piston F, which works in the short horizontalsteam-cylinder L. This cylinder may be cast with or otherwise firmlysecured to the block A, and the rod of the piston works throughstuffing-boxcs in both ends of it.

To the outer end of the steam-cylinder-- that is to say, the endfarthest from the ram Othere is attached a valve chest, G, which isfitted with a valve of any suitable kind, by which steam may be admittedfrom the said chest into the cylinder, to force the piston and ramtoward the die B, and afterward allowed to exhaust for the purpose ofpermitting the piston to come back again, the said valve being worked bymeans of a hand lever, H.

I is the pipe, by which steam is admitted from a boiler to thevalve-chest G.

J is the exhaust-pipe.

K is a branch-pipe leading from the pipe I to the inner end of thecylinder-that is to say, the end nearest the ram-and fitted with astop-valve, a, which is kept closed by a loaded lever, 12, but opened bythe pressure of steam when the said lever is raised for the purpose ofadmitting steam to the inner end of the cylinder, to force the pistonback, after the communication between the outer end of the cylinder andthe exhaust-pipe has been opened by the main valve in the chest G. Thereis aswagc, M, formed upon or secured to the block A, for the receptionof one side of the railway-bar, and the upper part of the die B is soformed (see Fig. 2) as to constitute a swage for the other side of thebar.

The operation of welding together two rail way-bars or portions thereofin this machine is as follows: The two bars or portions thereof havinghad their ends properly heated, the ram 0 is drawn back from the die Bby the admission of steam through the pipe K to the inner end of thecylinder, and the bars or portions thereof are laid end to end upon theblock A, between the die B and ram G, and after the two heated ends havebeen closed by striking the opposite ends with sledgehammers, the mainvalve is opened by the lever IT, to admitsteam to the outer end of thecylinder, and, as the valve a has been previously closed, the steamforces the piston toward the inner end of the cylinder, and causes theram 0 to force the rail against the die B, and so perform the weldingprocess. This operation of the piston and ram may be repeated one ormore times, if necessary, and when the sides of the joint havebeen'brought to the desired shape by these means, the ram holds thejoint immovably while the weld is finished on the face of the rail bythe use of hand-hammers.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

The machine for welding or repairing railway-bars, composed principallyof a block or bed-plate, A, a die, B, a ram, 0, a piston, F, and ast.eam-cylinder, L, the whole combined to operate substantially asherein set forth.

J. G. PARK.

Witnesses:

T. T. BLooMER, A. H. SQUIRES.

